The Tortured Poets Department might be one of Taylor Swift’s most anticipated album drops, considering how many new fans she has acquired since she practically exploded with fame last year, not to mention it is the first album she has released since it became public that she and Joe Alwyn were no longer together.

Naturally, many people assumed the album would focus on him, and I think it’s safe to say most were surprised when it had a lot of clear references to…other people.

But honestly, I don’t love that the conversations around the album are so focused on who they are written about or why. I feel strongly that this album had a lot of very obvious easter eggs, including some of the album art looking similar to the cover of a movie Alwyn was a part of in 2021, so it wasn’t really necessary to pick them apart like Swifties have in the past.

Credit: Taylor Swift and Universal Music Group

In my opinion, parts of the album do lean into her personal life too much. Additionally, I wonder if she overextended herself with all of her commitments this past year (like her international tour!) and released this album to give the fans what they wanted: to hear her jab at other people.

But I recognize that she’s being extremely vulnerable here; it was even pointed out to me that these diary-like songs are reminiscent of Fearless and unlike anything we’ve seen from her in years. I think if you can enjoy these songs for what they are and not what they might mean to her, then it is a very enjoyable album. I want to go into some of the songs I feel strongly about a little more specifically.

“Fortnight” (featuring Post Malone)

One thing I love about “Fortnight” is that even though she is still embracing synth pop (a genre I personally love coming from her), it’s kind of like dream pop. I feel like it would do really well on a playlist with Beach House or Lana del Rey.

Lyrically, this song is really strong. Swift and Post Malone make an unexpectedly beautiful pair, both vocally and emotionally.

“The Tortured Poets Department”

“The Tortured Poets Department” is a song in which Swift recognizes that someone she was with was a bit pretentious. When she questions, “Who uses typewriters anyway?”, it reminds me of every time I’ve ever thought that some guy I was seeing may have crossed the line from quirky to cocky.

I have to be honest, though — I hate the name dropping in this song. It kind of feels like she’s shouting people out (Charlie Puth, Lucy Dacus, Jack Antonoff) who she knows will be “on her side” of any fight that breaks out between her and any of the people she wanted to get revenge against with this album. And while I like the album, I do believe it is a revenge album.

“My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys”

This one is definitely one of my favorites! It’s stuck in my head a lot; I’m a sucker for songs that have a dramatic chorus. I think she conveys a very understandable feeling that she’s been treated like a toy and that if she’s broken, she’s not worth being around. It’s a bit immature compared to some of her more complex content, but she’s serving a wider audience than she used to.

Credit: Taylor Swift and Universal Music Group

“Down Bad”

“Fuck it if I can’t have him,” she says, recognizing her own lack of emotional stability. I know I wrote earlier that I feel like some songs are childish, but I appreciate how she calls herself out a little bit.

I feel like I would have loved this song at 16, which prompts me to think about the other songs I listened to at that age. For example, I had quite a few The 1975 songs on my playlists at the time. If there are any songs on this album that are similar to theirs, like some are saying, I think it’s this one.

“So Long, London”

Before the album came out, I saw some comments about how this would be the one about Alwyn for sure. But I sort of see it as being a goodbye message to London Boy(s) — lest we forget that Healy is also British — and a hello to the all-American man.

She definitely still has an infatuation with “the boy on the football team” so many years after Fearless came out. This song makes it clear that she still feels like she is in a phase of self discovery just like when she was 15, especially having said “I’m pissed off you let me give you all that youth for free.” 

Even though she’s 34 now, she spent her late 20’s and early 30’s with someone who hurt her, and it only makes sense that she now sees that as a waste of time. If you relate to this, don’t worry — everything truly happens for a reason, and life is never wasted. 

“But Daddy I Love Him”

Swift has a really strong sense of humor that she often conveys in her songs — but not usually the sad ones. Clearly, there was some tension between her and her family and friends over someone she was with, and she jokes that she’s “having his baby… just kidding but you should see your faces!”

I love how she can poke fun at the people who love her even though they didn’t agree with her. It reminds me of how she wrote “Love Story” after her parents didn’t approve of her high school boyfriend. I have seen some reviews say that she is complaining about boys the way a girl in high school would, but I think we should recognize that this is because there are some men out there who behave like children.

So even though I think some of this album is a little self obsessed, like those same reviews may say, I think the comments about her acting “too young” are unfair. We all act a little childish, sometimes!

Credit: Taylor Swift and Universal Music Group

“Fresh Out the Slammer”

This song is really catchy, but I think it’s one of the least original songs on the album. A lot of the themes — the American dream, feeling trapped in a relationship, childhood ideas of love, her friends keeping her from love — are repeated from other songs of hers like Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince, Midnight Rain, and You’re On Your Own Kid all come to mind. Those were not only catchy and relatable, but also lyrically challenging. While this song is good, I just don’t think it’s up to par with her others.

“Florida!!!” (featuring Florence and the Machine)

Taylor Swift and Florence Welch’s voices sound amazing together. I love the depth this song has, not just in the intensity of the music but also in its inspiration. Swift said this song is about your previously made plans not aligning with what ended up happening in your life.

Any type A person can relate to having something so well thought out, only to realize that the circumstances just aren’t aligning how they thought they might. I’m curious why she chose to compare Florida and Texas as she has never lived in either of those places, but I have heard it links back to what happened during her Eras Tour shows there.

“Guilty as Sin?”

This song has a little sprinkle of Catholic guilt — she asks, am I allowed to cry? Should I keep my longings locked up? “My bedsheets are ablaze / I’ve screamed his name” and “They’re gonna crucify me anyway / What if the way you hold me / is what’s actually holy?” is basically a poetic way of saying “I’m going to hell for this.” 

The reference to “Downtown Lights” by The Blue Nile implies that she took inspiration from their song, where they wonder if the person they love knows they love them. I think the beat of this song is very similar to Fearless — there’s a lot going on here and I love it.

“Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?”

Lyrics from this song were used as a teaser for the album: “you don’t get to tell me about sad.” This is like when you’re arguing with someone and they try to tell you how you feel or they value their own emotions more than yours. Nothing frustrates me more than that, and I think that’s why it fits into this song for her as she’s also communicating that the music industry and all the gossip surrounding it made her feel like a worse person than she is.

There’s one line in this song that I think got taken out of context by the Internet: “You wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum where they raised me.” Some seemed to think she meant her childhood home in Pennsylvania, but she has always said her childhood was a really positive experience, so I don’t think she meant that so literally, but maybe she was trying to say that she has grown up a lot.

This one is not my favorite on the album — I hate thinking about the Kim/Kanye issue and it seems like that is what this song is about — but I think her message here is valid.

Credit: Taylor Swift and Universal Music Group

“I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)”

This song sends a strong message about what she experienced in a relationship with someone who her friends and family didn’t like, which some of her other songs have done as well. This is one of the first songs where she has explicitly detailed how she thought she was able to fix someone that she clearly couldn’t, since you can’t “fix” other people.

She has hinted at it in other songs, and while this song is certainly still poetic in a way, it’s quite literal. I wonder if she was tired of hinting at this and just wanted to say it, for once. I think a lot of young women connected with her vulnerability so I am glad she chose to just say it.

“I Can Do It with a Broken Heart”

I didn’t go to the Eras Tour (heartbreaking, truly) but I have seen some other Swifties say they feel bad they were there when it turns out she felt the way she describes in this song: “’Cause I’m a real tough kid, I can handle my shit / They said, “Babe, you gotta fake it ’til you make it” and I did.” It’s so incredibly sad to hear she felt that way while making so many others happy.

I think there’s an alternative thought process about this, though: having something to do might have pulled her out of whatever she was feeling at the time. When non-famous people break up, they try to move forward with their lives; that’s what she was doing with the Eras Tour and this song communicates to us that we can do things with a broken heart, too. Plus, she would not be in her current relationship without the Eras Tour. So don’t feel bad if you were there!

“So High School”

This is a good song to end with because it might be my favorite. It’s the only song I can review from the annexed section of the album, and I chose it because it is — in my opinion — the most similar to Fearless, besides for the fact that she’s old enough to make some sexual innuendos (“scouts honor” is definitely one of them and I cannot be convinced otherwise).

I love that when she was younger, she sang about “the boy on the football team” being less important than her career, and now that she has achieved so much, she can go back to feeling like a high schooler in how she loves someone. This type of experience isn’t limited to pop stars; I’m sure there are a lot of career-driven women who feel this way, too. It’s such a full circle moment for her and she expressed it perfectly.